Spanning the River of Blood

Spanning the River of Blood

By Ridley-Roo

Chapter 7 - Settling In

Remus walked over to the desk in his rooms and pulled out a quill and parchment. Then sat down and tried to decide what to write. What should he tell Sirius? Gazing out of the window he sat tapping the quill on the desk. Noticing that the moon was getting larger, a shiver ran down his spine and he felt the hair on his neck rising. Taking a deep breath he dipped the quill into the inkpot and pulled his mind back the letter....

Dear Sirius,

I promised to let you know when something happened... but I guess neither of us thought it would be so soon. The last 24 hours have been unbelievable, wish you´d been here.

Albus had a way of tracking the intruder and sent me (along with Snape unfortunately) to bring them here to Hogwarts. The result is we´re playing host to a couple of women. I´m guessing they´re a little bit younger than us (but it´s hard to tell) and both crackers to look at.... Mind you it´s been so long since I had a date anyone of consenting age looks good. You should have seen Snape´s face when he fell on top of one of them though! Priceless!

Anyway everything seemed to be going well, then one of them collapsed. The other is sitting with her in one of the guest quarters right now. Thought Poppy was going to have a fit when they flat refused to let her check them out. We´ve all been told to `get out´ and not come back until morning and then only with `huge amounts of Haggen Dazs´, not sure what it is but Albus seemed to know.

So my advice would be finish whatever he has you doing and get your furry butt over here....

Remus

He re-read the letter quickly, pulled out his wand and pointed it at the parchment before murmuring the concealment spell. Watching the ink carefully he saw is start to disappear and within a few seconds the parchment appeared to be blank. Smiling he turned it over and started to write again.

Dear Sirius,

Just a quick note to say can you pick up some fresh clothes for me on your way back.

Cheers...

Remus

Smiling to himself he folded the parchment and placed it into an envelope, finally sealing it with a wax seal. Rising from his chair he headed out in search of an owl.

Layla sat on the oversized four poster bed and waited for Katrina´s tantrum to blow itself out. She´d been waiting for just over an hour now and was starting to get a little tired of it all. Katrina dealt with things in a very different manner to herself. She preferred to sit and think things through, Katrina would get animated and makea scene. You could tell how worked up she was by the severity of her personal weather. A small inconvenience would be marked by a slight breeze, seriously peeved would be a strong wind. Watching the gale blowing through the room she wondered if throwing some water over her friend might help. However like many storms this one blew itself out and with a few half hearted gusts flopping onto the bed.

`So come on then spill it!´ Katrina was now stretched on her stomach at the bottom of the bed, looking up for a reply.

`Spill what?´ Well there was no need to make it easy for her.

`Cute. Why you´re staying here? What happened down there? And why on earth you were willing to let me feed the fish!´

Layla studied her face looking for a clue as to what answers she was expecting. Knowing better than to try and read her any other way, she only had body language to gauge how much to reveal. Should she tell her about the voices she´d heard down in the cavern? How she felt strangely at home here and that feeling had been echoed by the voices? The more she told her the more she would want to know and Layla didn´t want to go down that road, at least not yet. `I´m staying because it should be interesting and it´s better than going into work on Monday. I´m not entirely sure what happened `down there´ and someone has to feed the fish. That someone might as well be you.´

Katrina took all this in before smiling. `Oh really and I thought it might have something to do with a couple of tall blokes!´ The smile became a grin. `Remember it´s my turn to get laid next.....´

Laughing they each grabbed a pillow, collapsing into a flurry of feathers and giggles. This had been a favoured way of venting tension for them since school and both had learnt a few tricks over the years. The room was therefore quite a mess by the following morning as Albus Dumbledore made his way to their door.

He had spent much of the previous evening explaining about the concentrator and their guests to Minerva and the other members of staff. Deciding what to tell them had been more difficult than deciding what to tell their guests. In the end he had stayed with the truth, but limited to what he knew to be facts, and even then only the facts they already knew about. How much more they would be able to guess he didn´t wish to worry about. He knew Snape was his biggest problem in that area. Ever since childhood he´d never been one to let things lie and Albus knew that he would already be looking for other pieces of the puzzle. As he walked up to the door of the guest rooms he decided that Severus Snape needed to be distracted. Something that would keep him from working out exactly who had come to Hogwarts, and what they might do now they were here.